Black powder (or gunpowder) in all its varieties undoubtedly is the most essential pyrotechnic material and no serious pyro-crazy can get on without.
Basic Composition:
- Potassium Nitrate | 75
- Charcoal (Airfloat) | 15
- Sulfur | 10
Optimal Composition:
- Potassium Nitrate | 74.6
- Charcoal (Airfloat) | 13.5
- Sulfur | 11.9
The performance of black powder is contingent on many factors, the two most important being method of manufacture (intimacy of integration) and derivation of charcoal (type of wood, carbonisation process).
A simple, commonly cited, chemical equation for the combustion of black powder is:
2 KNO3 + S + 3C --> K2S + N2 + 3CO2A more accurate, but still simplified, equation is
10 KNO3 + 3S + 8C → 2K2CO3 + 3K2SO4 + 6 CO2 + 5N2MANUFACTURE
Suitable methods of small-scale black powder manufacture. It discusses and compares the most relevant methods for home use in terms of efficiency, effort, cost, safety and outcome. With the information provided everyone should be capable of manufacturing diverse qualities of gunpowder ranging from basic, slow-burning composites (not every application requires a fast product!) to black powder reaching or surpassing the performance of commercial grain.
The following table compares some of the most common methods of small-scale BP manufacture.
| Method used | Efficiency | Effort | Cost | Safety | Performance of end product |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A.) Screening prepared materials | high | low | low | rather safe | very low |
| B.) Hand grinding (wet or dry) | very low | very high | low | rather unsafe | low |
| C.) Three component milling without ball mill | high | low | low | unsafe | low |
| D.) CIA method without preparing materials (in ball mill) | medium | medium | high | safe | medium |
| E.) Three component ball milling (up to three hours) | medium - low | low | medium | unsafe | medium - high* |
| F.) Three component ball milling (for more than 3 hours) | low | low | medium | unsafe | medium - high* |
| G.) Double & double component ball milling | low | medium | medium | safe | medium - high* |
| H.) Combined ball milling and CIA | low | medium - high | high | safe ** | medium - high *** |
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() depending upon the efficiency of your mill *
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()* watch out for spillage of hot material! Gloves are essential! ***
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(***) depending on how carefully the process is executed
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Efficiency is determined by the output of the process per unit of time.
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Effort describes how much work is necessary to produce an amount of powder (the time you spent with production; a running ball mill however does not add to this but to the first aspect).
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Performance compares the burning characteristics of the outcomes (it is plain that for a meaningful comparison we must use the same raw materials in every method).
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